Method and System Enabling Crowdsourced Peer to Peer Product Rental

ABSTRACT

A system and method for online peer-to-peer rental of things using crowdsourcing and selected groups of potential lenders. Individuals desiring to borrow a particular thing may search a listing of things offered for rental by lenders that have chosen to list for rental some of the things that they own. If a thing desired by one wishing to rent is not available among the things currently listed for rental, the borrower may request that potential lenders be contacted. Potential lenders may be identified using a collection of personal information for a population of consumers based on consumer purchase history information and consumer rental history information collected by the entity operating the peer-to-peer rental system.

FIELD

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to systems and methodsthat enable the rental of things. More specifically, specific aspects ofthe present disclosure relate to systems and methods for onlinepeer-to-peer rental of things using crowdsourcing and selected groups ofpotential lenders.

BACKGROUND

Individuals having a temporary need for a thing which they do not ownmay poll other individuals to identify someone willing to lend theneeded thing. Depending on the nature of the thing, the chance offinding a willing lender of the needed thing within the set ofindividuals known to the borrower may be quite small, and finding apotential lender in a group of individuals that do not know the borroweris even smaller. The individual needing the thing may contact one ormore companies that rent various items, to identify a company that rentsthe needed thing. If the thing cannot be found for rent from acommercial rental company, the individual needing the thing may beforced to buy the thing, although they may have little or no future needfor it.

Limitations and disadvantages of conventional methods and systems willbecome apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of suchapproaches with some aspects of the present methods and systems setforth in the remainder of this disclosure with reference to thedrawings.

SUMMARY

A system and method for online peer-to-peer rental of things usingcrowdsourcing and selected groups of potential lenders, substantially asshown in and/or described in connection with at least one of thefigures, as set forth more completely in the claims.

These and other advantages, aspects and novel features of the presentdisclosure, as well as details of an illustrated embodiment thereof,will be more fully understood from the following description anddrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of exemplary computer network in accordancewith various aspects of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 2A-2B are a flowchart illustrating the actions of an exampleprocess that may be performed by a system that supports peer-to-peercrowdsourced rental of product items among a population of users, inaccordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is an example mobile device screen that may be displayed on auser device by a mobile application (“app”), in accordance with variousaspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is an example mobile device screen to enable the user to requestan item that they wish to rent, which may be displayed by a mobileapplication on a user device upon selection of the “Create a Request”button of FIG. 3, in accordance with various aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 5 is an example mobile device screen used to display rentalrequests from other users in the vicinity of the user of the mobiledevice, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is an example mobile device screen used to display notificationsand other communication to the user that is related to peer-to-peerrental activity, in accordance with various aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 7 is an example mobile device screen that may be displayed by amobile application on a user device to enable a user to respond to arental request by listing an item for rental, in accordance with variousaspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is an example mobile device screen used to display notificationsand other communication to the user that is related to peer-to-peerrental activity, in accordance with various aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 9 is an example mobile device screen that may be displayed by amobile application on a user device upon selection of the “Offers” tabsof FIG. 5 or FIG. 9, in accordance with various aspects of the presentdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to systems and methods thatenable the rental of things. More specifically, certain aspects of thepresent invention relate to systems and methods for online peer-to-peerrental of things using crowdsourcing and selected groups of potentiallenders.

The following description of example methods and apparatus is notintended to limit the scope of the description to the precise form orforms detailed herein. Instead the following description is intended tobe illustrative so that others may follow its teachings.

The present application relates to the rental of products. Morespecifically, the present application relates to a method and systemthat enables the crowdsourced rental of things.

As utilized herein the terms “circuits” and “circuitry” refer tophysical electronic components (i.e., hardware) and any software and/orfirmware (“code”) that may configure the hardware, be executed by thehardware, and or otherwise be associated with the hardware. As usedherein, for example, a particular processor and memory (e.g., a volatileor non-volatile memory device, a general computer-readable medium, etc.)may comprise a first “circuit” when executing a first one or more linesof code and may comprise a second “circuit” when executing a second oneor more lines of code.

As utilized herein, circuitry is “operable” to perform a functionwhenever the circuitry comprises the necessary hardware and code (if anyis necessary) to perform the function, regardless of whether performanceof the function is disabled, or not enabled (e.g., by auser-configurable setting, factory setting or trim, etc.).

As utilized herein, “and/or” means any one or more of the items in thelist joined by “and/or”. As an example, “x and/or y” means any elementof the three-element set {(x), (y), (x, y)}. That is, “x and/or y” means“one or both of x and y.” As another example, “x, y, and/or z” means anyelement of the seven-element set {(x), (y), (z), (x, y), (x, z), (y, z),(x, y, z)}. That is, “x, y, and/or x” means “one or more of x, y, andz.” As utilized herein, the terms “exemplary” or “example” means servingas a non-limiting example, instance, or illustration. As utilizedherein, the term “e.g.” introduces a list of one or more non-limitingexamples, instances, or illustrations.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularexamples only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. Asused herein, the singular forms are intended to include the plural formsas well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will befurther understood that the terms “comprises,” “includes,” “comprising,”“including,” “has,” “have,” “having,” and the like when used in thisspecification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps,operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude thepresence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps,operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. maybe used herein to describe various elements, these elements should notbe limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish oneelement from another element. Thus, for example, a first element, afirst component, or a first section discussed below could be termed asecond element, a second component or a second section without departingfrom the teachings of the present disclosure. Similarly, various spatialterms, such as “upper,” “lower,” “side,” and the like, may be used indistinguishing one element from another element in a relative manner. Itshould be understood, however, that components may be oriented indifferent manners, for example a device may be turned sideways so thatits “top” surface is facing horizontally and its “side” surface isfacing vertically, without departing from the teachings of the presentdisclosure.

In the following discussion, the terms “customer service agent” and“sales associate” may be used herein interchangeably to refer to anemployee or other individual who provides product and/or sales relatedassistance to customers of a business. The sales associate or customerservice agent may be, by way of example and not limitation, an expert,question and answer provider, merchandise associate, etc. The terms“customer,” “consumer,” and “user” may be used herein interchangeably torefer to a potential or existing purchaser or borrower/renter of productitems or things.

The term “social network” may be used herein to refer to a network offamily, friends, colleagues, and other personal contacts, or to anonline community of such individuals who use a website or othertechnologies to communicate with each other, share information,resources, etc.

The term “borrow” may be used herein to refer to the authorized use of aproduct item or thing belonging to one individual or group, by anotherindividual or group. The term “rent” may be used herein to refer to theborrowing of an item or thing, according to agreed upon terms and/orconditions (e.g., date, time, duration) for a specified fee. The term“borrower” may be used herein to refer to an individual or group thatborrows an item or thing, and the term “lender” may be used herein torefer to an individual or group that provides a thing or item to aborrower.

The disclosed methods and systems may be part of an overall shoppingexperience system created to enhance the consumer shopping event. In oneexample, the disclosed system may be integrated with the customer'sreward system, the customer's social network (e.g., the customer canpost their shopping activity conducted through the system to theirsocial network), the customer's expert system, digital/mobileapplications, shopping history, wish list, location, merchandiseselections, or the like. However, the system disclosed may be fullyand/or partially integrated with any suitable shopping system asdesired, including those not mentioned and/or later designed.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of exemplary computer network, in accordancewith various aspects of the present disclosure. The following disclosesvarious example systems and methods for, by way of example and notlimitation, producing and delivering direction information to customersvia a computer network, to a handheld or mobile device such as thosedescribed above, and to devices such as kiosks and public terminalslocated both indoors and outdoors at business and other locations.Referring now to FIG. 1, a processing device 20″, illustrated in theexemplary form of a mobile communication device, a processing device20′, illustrated in the exemplary form of a computer system, and aprocessing device 20 illustrated in schematic form, are shown. Each ofthese devices 20, 20′, 20″ are provided with executable instructions to,for example, provide a means for a customer, e.g., a user, a customer orconsumer, etc., or a sales associate, a customer service agent, and/orothers to access a host system 68 and, among other things, be connectedto a content management system, an electronic publication system, ahosted social networking site, a user profile, a store directory, and/ora sales associate. Generally, the computer executable instructionsreside in program modules which may include routines, programs, objects,components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks orimplement particular abstract data types. Accordingly, the processingdevices 20, 20′, 20″ illustrated in FIG. 1 may be embodied in any devicehaving the ability to execute instructions such as, by way of example, apersonal computer, mainframe computer, personal-digital assistant(“PDA”), cellular telephone, tablet, e-reader, smart phone, or the like.Furthermore, while described and illustrated in the context of a singleprocessing device 20, 20′, 20″, the various tasks described hereinaftermay be practiced in a distributed environment having multiple processingdevices linked via a local or wide-area network whereby the executableinstructions may be associated with and/or executed by one or more ofmultiple processing devices.

For performing the various tasks in accordance with the executableinstructions, the example processing device 20 includes a processingunit 22 and a system memory 24 which may be linked via a bus 26. Withoutlimitation, the bus 26 may be a memory bus, a peripheral bus, and/or alocal bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. As needed for anyparticular purpose, the system memory 24 may include read only memory(ROM) 28 and/or random access memory (RAM) 30. Additional memory devicesmay also be made accessible to the processing device 20 by means of, forexample, a hard disk drive interface 32, a magnetic disk drive interface34, and/or an optical disk drive interface 36. As will be understood,these devices, which would be linked to the system bus 26, respectivelyallow for reading from and writing to a hard disk 38, reading from orwriting to a removable magnetic disk 40, and for reading from or writingto a removable optical disk 42, such as a CD/DVD ROM or other opticalmedia. The drive interfaces and their associated computer-readable mediaallow for the nonvolatile storage of computer-readable instructions,data structures, program modules and other data for the processingdevice 20. Other types of non-transitory computer-readable media thatcan store data and/or instructions may be used for this same purpose.Examples of such media devices include, but are not limited to, magneticcassettes, flash memory cards, digital videodisks, Bernoulli cartridges,random access memories, nano-drives, memory sticks, and other read/writeand/or read-only memories.

A number of program modules may be stored in one or more of thememory/media devices. For example, a basic input/output system (BIOS)44, containing the basic routines that help to transfer informationbetween elements within the processing device 20, such as duringstart-up, may be stored in ROM 28. Similarly, the RAM 30, hard drive 38,and/or peripheral memory devices may be used to store computerexecutable instructions comprising an operating system 46, one or moreapplications programs 48 (such as a Web browser), other program modules50, and/or program data 52. Still further, computer-executableinstructions may be downloaded to one or more of the computing devicesas needed, for example via a network connection.

To allow a user to enter commands and information into the processingdevice 20, input devices such as a keyboard 54 and/or a pointing device56 are provided. While not illustrated, other input devices may includea microphone, a joystick, a game pad, a scanner, a camera, touchpad,touch screen, etc. These and other input devices are typically connectedto the processing unit 22 by means of an interface 58 which, in turn, iscoupled to the bus 26. Input devices may be connected to the processor22 using interfaces such as, for example, a parallel port, game port,FireWire, or a universal serial bus (USB). To view information from theprocessing device 20, a monitor 60 or other type of display device mayalso be connected to the bus 26 via an interface, such as a videoadapter 62. In addition to the monitor 60, the processing device 20 mayalso include other peripheral output devices, not shown, such as, forexample, speakers, cameras, printers, or other suitable device.

As noted, the processing device 20 may also utilize logical connectionsto one or more remote processing devices, such as the host system 68having associated data repository 68A. In this regard, while the hostsystem 68 has been illustrated in the exemplary form of a computer, thehost system 68 may, like processing device 20, be any type of devicehaving processing capabilities. Again, the host system 68 need not beimplemented as a single device but may be implemented in a manner suchthat the tasks performed by the host system 68 are distributed amongst aplurality of processing devices/databases located at differentgeographical locations and linked through a communication network.Additionally, the host system 68 may have logical connections to otherthird party systems via a network 12, such as, for example, theInternet, LAN, MAN, WAN, cellular network, cloud network, enterprisenetwork, virtual private network, wired and/or wireless network, orother suitable network, and via such connections, will be associatedwith data repositories that are associated with such other third partysystems. Such third party systems may include, without limitation,systems of banking, credit, or other financial institutions, systems ofthird party providers of goods and/or services, systems ofshipping/delivery companies, media content providers, document storagesystems, etc.

For performing tasks as needed, the host system 68 may include many orall of the elements described above relative to the processing device20. In addition, the host system 68 would generally include executableinstructions for, among other things, coordinating storage and retrievalof documents, social network storage of a shopping list, receiving alocation of a customer via a mobile device, maintaining maps and layoutsof buildings and geographic areas, calculating directions or routeswithin buildings and geographic areas, receiving a request for a servicecall center connection from either a customer or a sales associate,routing the request via a distributed mobile video call center,supporting online peer-to-peer rental of things using crowdsourcing andselected groups of potential lenders, and providing a service callinfrastructure for providing the requestor with a distributed customerservice experience.

Communications between the processing device 20 and the host system 68may be exchanged via a further processing device, such as a networkrouter (not shown), that is responsible for network routing.Communications with the network router may be performed via a networkinterface component 73. Thus, within such a networked environment, e.g.,the Internet, World Wide Web, LAN, cloud, or other like type of wired orwireless network, program modules depicted relative to the processingdevice 20, or portions thereof, may be stored in the non-transitorycomputer-readable memory storage device(s) of the host system 68 andprocessing devices 20, 20′ and 20″.

A system in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosuremay serve a population of users such as, by way of example and notlimitation, customers of a merchant having an online and/or one or more“brick-and-mortar” or “physical” business locations, and may, forexample, provide a user with recommendations on what things they mightwant to rent next, based on, for example, personal information of theuser and data collected by a such a system from the population of users.Such customers may be member of a loyalty program of the merchant and/orbusiness partners, for which the merchant may have detailed personal andtransaction information. Having such information available enables thisaspect to provide users with suggestions about what things they mightwant to rent such as, for example, tools, furniture, appliances,clothing, electronics, or any other item that one user may need toborrow, or have to lend to others, to either save money by not buyingthe thing, or engage in an activity they have not engaged in previously.

Such suggestions may be generated by the system using data from avariety of sources, including the customer's own purchase and rentalhistory information, and that of other customers, to determine the itemsto recommend to a given user. For example, the purchase or rentalhistory of a given customer may include one or more things usuallyemployed in a particular type of do-it-yourself (DIY) project or have aparticular intended use. Based on such information, a system inaccordance with various aspects of the present disclosure may identifyother items that are related to, or have a high likelihood of being usedfor the completion of such a DIY project or activity. Suchrecommendations may be produced and presented to the users by thesystem, autonomously, as opportunities for arise, in that many consumersin need of an item system in accordance with the present disclosure mayincrease the frequency of rental of things, thereby also increasing thewillingness of users to rent those things that they have.

As mentioned above, a system in accordance with various aspects of thepresent disclosure may generate recommendations for items for the userto rent based on, for example, their own purchase or rental history.Users that have no prior transactions on a system according to thepresent disclosure may be presented only with suggestions for popularrental items. However, users who rent particular items may be presentedwith recommendation of related items that other users, for example,those with similar personal information (e.g., similar demographics,purchase history, life stage, age, marital status, etc.) have alsorented. Based on the amount of information the merchant has for a givenuser, a system in accordance with the present disclosure may use deliverrecommendations of things to rent, according to product categorypropensities, and may make delivery recommendations, where applicable.

Although a system in accordance with various aspects of the presentdisclosure enables users to rent items or things from other users, andto rent items or things to other users, the users of such a system maynot know what fee to request when lending the item for rental. A systemaccording to various aspects of the present disclosure may providereasoned estimates or recommendations of the rental fee that a usershould request when deciding to place their own things up for rent, andmay also provide a “one-click” way for a user to request an estimate ofthe resale/trade-in value of their listed rental item(s) as an aid inmaking the decision to rent or sell an item or thing.

A system in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosuremay access information from a variety of sources in calculatingrecommended rental fees and resale values, including the personalinformation of the users of the system. The system may, for example,provide such resale value information, and may provide a platform viawhich a user may resell their items or things. Information about userresale transactions or offerings may be collected by the system, and maybe provided to other users to provide a simple reference to users asthey price their items for resale. In this way, a system according tovarious aspects of the present invention may provide support for userrental or resale of their items, whichever the user chooses. Thealgorithm used to generate rental fees and resale price estimates orrecommendations may, for example, factor in original/current itempurchase price, original date of purchase, number or frequency ofrentals of the same or similar items, review ratings of borrowers of thesame or similar items, and expected depreciation of the type of item,and may learn and adjust to better predict the fee/price at which agiven item will rent/sell best, based on rental/resale activity ofrelated items.

A system in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosuremay allow users to pre-populate their inventory of items that they makeavailable for rental/resale, by accessing the purchase history data ofthe user from the personal information of the user. This gives users away in which the user may, with a single click, list items to rent orresell to others, saving the user time and helping the user to rememberwhat items or things that they have that may qualify as rental/resaleitems. In listing the items from prior purchases of the user, a systemin accordance with the present disclosure may filter the items orthings, so that only those purchases that might be rented or resold areshown. For example, while thing like tools, furniture, and electronicsare likely items in which others may be interested as rental items, abag of charcoal, repair parts for a lawn mower, or items of clothing areless likely to evoke interest.

In order to aid in developing the supply-side of “peer-to-peer” rentals,a system according to various aspects of the present disclosurecontinuously reach out to potential renter/lenders, and to make theprocess of listing items for resale and/or rental as easy as possible.For example, in a system according to aspects discussed herein, acustomer/user may sign up as a new user of the peer-to-peer rentalsystem described herein. The new user may then be asked if they wouldlike to list items that they may have available for rent by, forexample, providing credentials that identify them as a customer of themerchant or member a loyalty program of the merchant. The prior purchasetransactions of the user with the merchant may then be retrieved and alisting of “rentable” items may be displayed to the new user of thepeer-to-peer rental system. The new user may then click-on or mark thoseitems that they wish to list for rental, and submit the list of markeditems. The marked items may then be added to the list of items that theuser has made available to other user for rental.

A system in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosureprovides users (e.g., borrowers and lenders) a platform/marketplace viawhich to rent almost any item or thing to and from each other, allowinglenders/renters to set their own prices and terms. Such a system giveslenders an outlet through which to make money on items that wouldotherwise sit dormant in their home or storage. A system in accordancewith aspects of the present disclosure also gives borrowers theopportunity to save money by borrowing, rather than buying the item(s)the product items they need, providing the borrowers with access toactivities in which they would not otherwise have participated withoutaccess to the item(s) they borrow. In accordance with various aspects ofthe present disclosure, such a system connects lenders and borrowers forrental of listed items, and in addition, provides a mechanism for usersto submit requests for items that are not listed by the system.

A potential barrier to the adoption by a user of an online peer-to-peerrental system web site or mobile app is the possibility of searching fora particular item and finding no matching items. A system in accordancewith various aspects of the present invention provides a mechanism for auser in such a situation to proactively reach out to individuals knownto the borrower (e.g., neighbors) and other individuals not known to theborrower, to check whether any other system users that have a productitem matching the product item of interest that has not been submittedfor rental, and prompting them to list such product items, to helpsaddress this issue. Such proactive contact with other users, an actionmay be referred to herein as a “shout-out,” and together with providingto a user an immediate listing of matching products has a positiveimpact on the perception of the system by users.

In accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure, a user ofa system may submit an online request to borrow/rent a particularproduct item. The system may then find matching items submitted forrental by other system users located within a specific geographic radiusof the user wishing to borrow the product item. The owners of itemsmatching the requested item may then be notified of the rental requestusing a communication means of their choice (e.g., email, mobile textmessage, online social media posting, in-app posting). If too few or nomatching product items are found by the system, the borrowing/rentinguser may request that other individuals that have not listed the desiredproduct item for rental be contacted, to identify potentiallenders/renters of the desired product item.

A system in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosuremay provide a user interface that enables a first user willing tolend/rent product items that they own, to submit those items forinclusion in a collection of product items available for rental byothers. One example of a suitable user interface in the form of a mobiledevice screen is shown and described below with respect to FIG. 7. Anadditional mechanism previously discussed above permits a user toautomatically submit for rental, suitable product items taken from theuser's purchase history from a merchant or partner businesses that maybe operators of the peer-to-peer rental platform discussed herein.

FIGS. 2A-2B are a flowchart illustrating the actions of an exampleprocess 200 that may be performed by a system that supports peer-to-peercrowdsourced rental of product items among a population of users, inaccordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. The actionsshown in FIG. 2 may be performed by a system such as that shown in FIG.1 that has been configured to have memory arranged to store datastructures linking product items, and respective owners, rental terms,owner geographic location, owner contact information, and otherparameters used in making such a system function as described herein.The actions of the example process illustrated in FIG. 2 begin at block205, following the establishment of the above data structures for acollection of product items submitted by various users of the system forrental to other users of the system.

At block 205, a system according to the present disclosure may receive asearch request and search parameter(s) characterizing a product itemfrom a first user that wishes to rent/borrow the product item. Asdiscussed herein, such a request may be received via a web pagedisplayed by a web browser running on a personal computer or mobiledevice, or via a dedicated mobile application running on a mobile deviceof the first user. In accordance with various aspects of the presentdisclosure, the rental request of the first user may be available forviewing by all users of the system with a certain distance of thegeographic location of the first user. In addition, certain users of thesystem may specifically be sent a notification of the rental request,depending upon a “Rental Propensity Score” generated by a “RentalPropensity Model,” discussed below.

At a next block 210, the system may initialize or set a current radiusof search around the geographic location of the first user to an initialgeographic distance, representative of a current boundary within whichthe lenders/renters of the product item of interest to the first usermust be located in order to be included in the search results. Thisradius of search may be initialized at any suitable value, and maypreferably be set to a value representing a travel distance acceptableto the majority of renters/borrows that travel to pick up and return theborrow/rented item.

Next, at block 215, the system may perform a search of the collection ofproduct items submitted by other users for rental, to identify productitems that match or are sufficiently similar to the search parametersfor the product item desired by the first user and that are productitems available to borrow from other users located within the currentradius of search. An example user interface suitable for searching sucha collection of product items is shown in the form of a mobile devicescreen and described below with respect to FIG. 4. In accordance withvarious aspects of the present disclosure, the search may result inidentifying no product items matching the product item desired by thefirst user, one matching product item, or multiple matching productitems.

At block 220, the method of FIGS. 2A-2B determines whether a sufficientnumber of product items were found that match the product item that thefirst user wants to rent/borrow. In accordance with various aspects ofthe present disclosure, a system performing the method of FIGS. 2A-2Bmay attempt to identify a certain minimum number of matching productitems for rent such as, for example, 10, or 100, or 1000, from which thefirst user may choose product items for which the first user will submita rental request. If, at block 220, it is determined that the search hasidentified at least the minimum number of matching product items, themethod continues at block 235 discussed below. If, however, it isdetermined at block 220 that fewer than the minimum number of productitems have been found by the search, the system may, at block 225,adjust (e.g., increase) the current radius of search to a larger value,and may then, at block 230, determine whether the current radius ofsearch is within an allowed maximum radius of search. If it isdetermined, at block 230, that the current radius of search is withinthe maximum allowed radius of search, the method of FIGS. 2A-2B loopsback to block 215, where the system then performs another search formatching product items. If, however, it is determined that the currentradius of search is not within the maximum allowed radius of search, themethod continues at block 235.

At block 235, the system performing the method of FIGS. 2A-2B sends alist of information about the product items matching the product itemrequested for rental by the first user to, for example, the browser onthe personal computer, or the mobile application on the mobile device ofthe first user, for review by the first user. The list sent to the firstuser may contain a subset of a certain number of the product items foundduring the search such as, for example, 25 product items, although othernumbers of matching product items may be displayed in the list. Next, atblock 240, the method directs a system according to aspects of thepresent disclosure to determine whether the system has received arequest from the first user to reserve a product item on the list ofproducts items matching the product item requested by the first user.If, at block 240, it is determined that the first user did not requestto reserve one of the matching product items identified by the search,the method of FIGS. 2A-2B continues at block 255 of FIG. 2B, discussedbelow. If, however, it is determined, at block 240, that the first userhas selected one of the product items identified by the search, themethod then, at block 245, directs the system to reserve the productitem(s) selected by the first user, and at block 250, notifies theuser/lender of the request by the first user to reserve the selectedproduct item. Then, at block 252, the second user/lender of the reservedproduct item accepts the reservation, and at block 254, the first andsecond users complete the rental transaction, and the method of FIGS.2A-2B is ends.

If the method determines, at block 240, that the first user failed toreserve any of the product items identified by the search, then at block255 of FIG. 2B, the system performing the method determines whether arequest has been received from the first user to “shout-out” to otherusers that may own, but may not have submitted the product item ofinterest to the first user, for rental. Such individuals may still bepotential renters/lenders of the product item desired by the first user.If the first user has not requested use of a “shout-out” to potentiallenders of the product item desired by the first user, the method ofFIGS. 2A-2B ends. If, however, the first user does wish to employ a“shout-out,” the method of FIG. 2B continues at block 260, where thesystem performing the method selects an initial set of other users thatare determined to be potential lenders of the product item desired bythe first user, based on a probability or likelihood of ownership of theproduct item desired by the first user. Next, at block 265, the methoddirects the system to determine a number or quantity of the potentiallenders to be contacted by the system in regard to the availability forrental of the product item desired by the first user. The system then,at block 270, sends a notification to the determined number of potentiallenders, informing them of the request of the first user to rent theproduct item of interest.

Next, at block 275, the system determines whether a response has beenreceived from any of the potential lenders, accepting the request of thefirst user to rent the product item of interest. If the systemdetermines that one of the potential lenders has acceptance the rentalrequest of the first user, the system then, at block 280, completes theremaining detail of the transaction for lending the requested productitem by the accepting potential lender to the first user, and the methodof FIGS. 2A-2B then ends. If, however, the system determines that noneof the potential lenders have accepted the request of the first user,the method of FIGS. 2A-2B then, at block 285, determines whether adefined time period for accepting the request has expired. If thedefined time period for accepting the rental request has expired, themethod is finished. If, however, it is determined that the defined timeperiod for accepting the rental request of the first user is notexpired, the method of FIGS. 2A-2B then loops back to block 275, toagain check for receipt of any acceptances by the potential lendersnotified of the rental request of the first user.

In accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure, alikelihood of ownership and, therefore, potential rental of variousproduct items that a user might have may be determined based on, forexample, a purchase history of the user as maintained by a merchant or abusiness partner of a merchant or operator of a system such as theexample various aspects of which are described herein. For example, asoftware model that may be referred to herein as a “Rental PropensityModel” may be employed to calculating a “Rental Propensity Score,” whichmay represent a likelihood of a given user or potential renter becominga renter of a particular product item based on a number of factorsincluding, by way of example and not limitation, their purchase history,and their rental history. For example, the purchase history of apotential lender may show that a potential renter previously purchasedthe product item of interest to a renter/borrower, even though thepotential lender has not submitted that product item to the system asbeing available for rent. In addition, a potential lender may havepurchased or rented other product items or project supplies that arerelated in use or purpose to the product item of interest to arenter/borrower, increasing the likelihood that the potential renterwill, in fact, own the product item of interest to the renter/borrower,and agree to rent the product item of interest, if solicited to do so.In accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure, the groupof potential renters may be identified as those with the highest “RentalPropensity Scores.”

Additional factor that may be used in computing a “Rental PropensityScore” in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure include, byway of example but not limitation, the number and identifiers of productcategories purchased from a merchant or its business partners, date ofthe most recent purchase from the merchant, whether the potential renterhas a practice of redeeming loyalty reward points, the total dollarvolume of product items purchased from the merchant by the potentiallender, and demographic factors such as age, gender, occupation,household income, homeowner/renter status, among numerous others.Further factors that may be incorporated in the calculation of theRental Propensity Score may include, for example, the number ofpeer-to-peer rental transactions as a lender, the average rating givento the potential lender as a lender, the number of previous responses torental requests, the number of previous rental request transactions, anda number of other measure derived from the behavior of the potentiallender related to peer-to-peer rental.

In accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure, thefactors used in the generation of the “Rental Propensity Score” may beadjusted, as well as weight assign to each factor, by identifying pastsuccessfully potential lenders that are found to be reliable requestresponders. The factors discussed above may be weighted and combined inthe calculation of the “Rental Propensity Score,” and a rentalpropensity ranking may be assigned to each user, which may be specificto each product category. This information may be used to identify thoseusers of the system with the highest “Rental Propensity Scores” for eachproduct category. For example, if for the product category of “HandheldPower Tools”, a factor of “number of transactions as a lender” is themost predictive factor, then that factor will be given the greatestweight when determining each user's “Rental Propensity Score” for thisproduct category. Every user, based on their composite score is thenranked (#1, #2, #3, etc.)

A system in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosuremay determine if a given day is to be considered to have status as a“Surge Day” or as a “Non-Surge Day,” and may use the status of each dayin calculations described below.

A system in accordance with various aspects of the present invention maydetermine, for a “Non-Surge Day”,” how many potential lenders to contactto evoke at least a certain minimum number of responses to anotification of a rental request, which may be referred to here as a“targeting depth.” Such a system may first determine the “RentalPropensity Scores” for the users, and next determine how many of thepotential lenders are to be sent a notification of a rental request.This approach may us past request response data to determine a range(i.e., “Min” to “Max”) by calculating how deep into the “RentalPropensity Model” an average request in a given category needs to go inorder to capture, e.g., one response (i.e., the “Min Depth”) vs. howdeep into the “Rental Propensity Model” requests in the given categoryneed to go in order to capture, e.g., three requests (i.e., the “MaxDepth”). The average equals the number of people at the top of the modelthat receive the notification. For example, if in past rental requests,the highest ranked user to respond to the request was ranked number 20in a particular product category's “Rental Propensity Model,” then the“Min Depth” is assigned the value 20. If the system must contact theuser ranked number 40 to capture a third rental request response, thenthe “Max Depth” is assigned the value of 40. In accordance with aspectsof the present disclosure, the average of the “Min Depth” and “MaxDepth” is used, which in this example, is the value of 30, which meansthe system will send a notification of the rental request to the to 30users in the ranking generated for the particular product category.

A system in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosuremay use the same process for determining how many users to send anotification of a rental request as that used for a “Non-Surge Day,”except that the notification may be sent to more users. Morespecifically, the number of users to which the notification is sent fora “Surge Day” is the number of users calculated for a “Non-Surge Day”multiplied by a factor equal to the average of how much higher merchantsales, reservations, and requests are on the “Surge Day” are above theaverage merchant sales, reservations, and requests for a “Non-SurgeDay.” For example, in the case of a “Surge Day,” if merchant sales for aparticular category were two times that of a normal (i.e., “Non-Surge”)day and rental reservations and rental requests for the particularcategory were three times that of a “Non-Surge” day, then themultiplication factor is 2.5 times (i.e., the average of 2× and 3×). Inthis case, the example 30 users mentioned above to be sent notificationson a “Non-Surge Day” becomes 75 people (30×2.5) on a “Surge Day.”

In accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure,notifications of rental requests on a “Non-Surge Day” may be sent usinga user's pre-specified channel preference (e.g., text message, email,social network post, in-app notification, etc.), Those not currentlysigned up to participate as a user of the peer-to-peer rental system ofthe present disclosure but still identified in the system may receive anemail invitation to sign up for participation in the peer-to-peer rentalsystem with the prospect of making money with product items which theyown (or are likely own) specifically identified (e.g., “highlighted”).

In accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure,notifications of rental requests on a “Surge Day” may be sent using thesame process as that used for a “Non-Surge Day”, but may be sent to theidentified surge users and with a change in pricing or messaging. On a“Surge Day,” users may be encouraged to list their product items (in agiven category) with a price equal to the average rental rate for thatproduct item and category, but multiplied by the average of how muchhigher merchant sales and rental reservations and rental requests areabove average.

In accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure, any userwho receives a rental request can respond with an offer. By creating anoffer, the user may create an item listing containing all of the sameinformation as any other listing (e.g., image, product description,product condition, pricing). That is, the same categories of informationrequested of a user listing a product item for rental may be required ofa potential lender responding to a rental request notification. All ofthe offers created in response to a rental request notification appearin a listing for review by the user submitting the “shout-out” rentalrequest. The user submitting the “shout-out” rental request is notifiedas each offer comes in, and all such offers show up in the mobileapplication or online web page in real time. Users may respond to“shout-out” rental requests at any time within a certain period of timeafter the initiation of the “shout-out” rental request such as, forexample, a period of seven days, or until the user that submitted the“shout-out” rental request closes/cancels the “shout-out” rentalrequest.

In accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure, a reservedproduct item rental transaction is initiated the instant the lenderclicks-on/selects the “Accept” option in response to a borrower'srequest to reserve the product item. When multiple lenders respond to aproduct item rental reservation, the rental transaction is initiated theinstant the first lender responds by clicking-on/selecting the “Accept”option. In the case of a rental request, the rental transaction isinitiated when the user that submitted the rental requestclicks-on/selects “Accept” to a selected lender's offer.

In accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure, lenderswho respond to a submitted rental request and lenders who become part ofthe selected offer may be notified that they have just earned points ina loyalty program of a merchant.

The following discussion describes example user-interface screens thatmay be displayed on such devices as, by way of illustration and notlimitation, a mobile device of a user by a mobile application running onthe user device. Although FIGS. 3 through 9 illustrate example userinterface screens rendered by a mobile application on a mobile devicesuch as, for example, a smart phone, tablet computer, or other mobiledevice, it should be noted that a graphical interface providing thefunctionality of FIG. 3 through FIG. 9 may also be provided by anapplication program running on a desktop, laptop, or notebook personalcomputer, or a server-side program running on a server of web site inwhich the server generates web pages for display by and receives userinput via an Internet browser such as, for example, the InternetExplorer© software application from Microsoft Corporation, the Safari©software application by Apple, Inc., and the Google Chrome© softwareapplication from Google Inc..

FIG. 3 is an example mobile device screen 300 that may be displayed on auser device by a mobile application (“app”), in accordance with variousaspects of the present disclosure. The mobile device screen 300 of FIG.3 includes a number of user interface elements such as, for example, an“Activity” tab 310, a “Browse” tab 320, and a “Requests” tab 330. Inaddition, the mobile device screen 300 includes a message area 335, anda content portion 340. In the example of FIG. 3, the user has selectedthe “Browse” tab 320, which enables a user to browse a listing of items341 that have been offered for rental by other users, which is shown inthe content portion 340. The user may enter terms describing the thingor item that they are seeking to rent in the “Search Terms” box 301, andmay center the search for renters of the desired device about a Zip codeprovided by the user in “Zip code” box 302.

If a user fails to find the desired item in the results of the searchperformed with the user specified “Search Terms” box 301 and “Zip code”box 302, shown in the content portion 340, the user then has the optionto create a request to rent the desired item by selecting the “Create aRequest” button 350. Creating a custom request allows the user todetermine what similar items other users have, but may not have listedfor rental, in a system according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is an example mobile device screen 400 to enable the user torequest an item that they wish to rent, which may be displayed by amobile application on a user device upon selection of the “Create aRequest” button of FIG. 3, in accordance with various aspects of thepresent disclosure. Upon the user clicking the “Create a Request” button350 of FIG. 3, the user is then prompted to provide a few details of thedesired item, in order to submit their request. As shown in the exampleillustrated in FIG. 4, the mobile device screen 400 provides a “What areyou looking for?” text box 460 in which the user may enter a textualdescription of the desired item or thing, and a “How will you use it?”text box 461, in which the user may describe the intended use to whichthe user will put the item they wish to rent. The user may enter a daterange in the “When do you need it?” user interface element 462, and textidentifying a category or product to which the desired item belongs, inthe “Category” text box 463. The user may indicate the amount thatthey're willing to pay to rent the desired item, in the “Budget” textbox 464, and provide any additional information in the “AdditionalComments” text box 465. A “Submit” command button 466 is also provided.Once the user fills in the information for the various fields describedabove and clicks-on the “Submit” command button 466, a user request forthe desired item is posted, and notifications are sent to likelyresponders, as identified by what may be referred to herein as a“Request Propensity Score” generated according to a “Request PropensityModel,” described in further detail herein.

FIG. 5 is an example mobile device screen 500 used to display rentalrequests from other users in the vicinity of the user of the mobiledevice, in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.The mobile device screen 500 may be displayed by the mobile applicationupon user selection of the Requests tab 330 of FIG. 3, for example. Inaccordance with various aspects of the present disclosure, any user ofthe mobile application may, at any time, see the list of current itemrental requests that have been created by other users in the vicinity ofthe user of the mobile application, but specific ones of the other usersof the system may be targeted with additional notifications, dependingupon, for example, the likelihood that those other users will respond tothe rental requests. As shown in the illustration of FIG. 5, the mobiledevice screen 500 also includes an “Offers” tab 525, and a number of“borrow requests” 542 displayed in the content portion 540 of the mobiledevice screen 500, where each “borrow request” 542 has a “Make Offer”button 543, to permit the user viewing a “borrow request” 542 to createan offer to rent an item they own to the user from whom the “borrowrequest” 542 originated, as described below.

FIG. 6 is an example mobile device screen 600 used to displaynotifications and other communication to the user that is related topeer-to-peer rental activity, in accordance with various aspects of thepresent disclosure. The mobile screen 600 may be displayed by a mobileapplication on a user device upon selection of an “Activity” tab, suchas the “Activity” tabs 310, 610 of FIGS. 3 and 6, for example. As shownin the example of FIG. 6, the mobile device screen 600 includes anindication in the message area 635 of the number of new notificationsreceived by the user of the mobile application, and indicators 644, 645showing the number of conversations and notifications involving theuser. The content portion 640 of the mobile device screen 600 shows themessages of the inter-user communication and the notifications receivedby the user of the mobile application. In accordance with variousaspects of the present disclosure, users with the highest “RequestPropensity Score” for a particular category may receive additionalnotifications about relevant recent requests, such as the notification646 of FIG. 6. In addition, users with the highest “Request PropensityScore” for a particular category may receive an additional notificationabout a relevant recent request in which the notification is displayedwith slightly different messaging such as, for example, the notification647 of FIG. 6, if the notification is issued on a “surge day” for thatcategory. The term “surge day” may be used herein to refer to a day onwhich demand for certain items or categories of items are experiencinghigher than normal rental or demand.

FIG. 7 is an example mobile device screen 700 that may be displayed by amobile application on a user device to enable a user to respond to arental request by listing an item for rental, in accordance with variousaspects of the present disclosure. A user that receives a notificationof a rental request (e.g., “Borrow Request” 542 of FIG. 5), may decideto make an offer to lend an item that they own, and may click a “MakeOffer” button associated with the “Borrow Request” (e.g., “Make Offer”button 543 of FIG. 5), which results in the display of the mobile devicescreen 700 of FIG. 7. To make an offer, the user wishing to rent theiritem then enters details of the item they wish to lend/rent into thevarious fields of the example mobile device screen 700 of FIG. 7. Forexample, the user wishing to lend/rent an item in response to a rentalrequest may use the image capture (e.g., camera) capability of theirmobile device to include one or more images 711 of the item beingoffered for rental. The responding user may also select a category ofthe item 712, and a brief description of the item 713. A more detaileddescription 714 may be entered, along with information identifying thename and Zip code of the location of the user making the offer. Theoffering user may also provide a fee for the rental 716 and the timeperiod of the rental 717. The offering user may then submit the offer toa system of the present disclosure using the “Submit Offer” button 751.A message communicating the details of the offer to lend/rent therequested item may then be communicated to the user that issued therental request, using the form of communication indicated by the userthat issued the rental request. The elements of the mobile device screen700 and the process of submitting the details of an offer to lend/rentan item may be the same as/similar to that employed when a user choosesto submit items for which the user has not actually received a rentalrequest.

FIG. 8 is an example mobile device screen 800 used to displaynotifications and other communication to the user that is related topeer-to-peer rental activity, in accordance with various aspects of thepresent disclosure. The mobile device screen 800 may be displayed by amobile application on a user device upon selection of the “Activity” tab610, 810 of FIG. 6 and FIG. 8, respectively. As shown in the example ofFIG. 8, the mobile device screen 800 includes an indication in themessage area 835 of the number of new notifications received by the userof the mobile application, and indicators 844, 845 showing the number ofconversations and notifications involving the user. The content portion840 of the mobile device screen 800 shows the messages of the inter-usercommunication and the notifications received by the user of the mobileapplication. Included in the example of FIG. 8 is a notification 848resulting from a response to a rental request.

FIG. 9 is an example mobile device screen 900 that may be displayed by amobile application on a user device upon selection of the “Offers” tabs525, 925 of FIG. 5 or FIG. 9, in accordance with various aspects of thepresent disclosure. Using the mobile device screen 900, the originalrequester can view responses to their request at any time. The mobiledevice screen 900 of FIG. 9 includes a content portion 940 in which aredisplayed a number of offers 945 of other users to rent/lend an itemrequested by the requesting user (i.e., “borrower”) of the mobileapplication. The requesting user may click-on/select any of thedisplayed offers 945 to see the details of the selected offer, and makea reservation of the offered item, in a manner similar to/the same aswhen browsing listing of items for rent/to borrow, as shown in theexample illustrated and described above with respect to FIG. 3. Inaccordance with various aspects of the present disclosure, the originalrequester may choose to cancel/remove their rental request at any timebefore a transaction is initiated by simply clicking-on/selecting the“Cancel Request” button 952.

Various aspects of the present disclosure may be seen in a method ofoperating an online system supporting crowdsourced peer to peer rentalof products items among a plurality of users. Such a method may compriseforming a collection of information identifying a plurality of productitems submitted for rental by a respective user of the plurality ofusers, the collection of information comprising personal informationidentifying a geographic location of the submitting user; and receiving,from a communication device of a first user of the plurality of users, arequest to rent a particular product item and a geographical location ofthe first user. The method may also comprise searching the collection ofinformation to identify product items matching the particular productitem and for which the geographic location of the submitting user iswithin a distance threshold of the geographic location of the firstuser; determining a number of product items in the collection that matchthe particular product item; and accepting, from the communicationdevice of the first user, a request to communicate with potentiallenders of the particular product item. Such a method may furthercomprise selecting one or more users of the plurality of users aspotential lenders of the particular product item, according to one orboth of a likelihood that the one or more users have the particularproduct item and a likelihood of the one or more users accepting arequest to rent the particular product item; and sending a message toeach of the potential lenders of the particular product item, themessage comprising a notification of the request by the first user torent the particular product item. Finally, the method may comprisereceiving an acceptance of the request to rent the particular productitem from a respective potential lender of the particular product item.

In accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure, thelikelihood that the one or more users have the particular product itemmay be determined from purchase history information of the one or moreusers. The likelihood of the one or more users accepting a request tolend the particular product item may be determined from a number ofresponses of the one or more users to notifications of requests to lendrelated product items. The likelihood that the one or more users havethe particular product item may be determined from purchase historyinformation of the one or more users showing purchase of a product itemrelated to use of the particular product item. The distance thresholdmay be adjusted based on the number of product items in the collectionthat match the particular product item. The method may further comprisesending to the first user a recommendation of a product item to rent,based upon a relationship of an intended used of the recommended productitem to rent to product items in a purchase history of the first user.The method may further comprise computing a score indicating apropensity of the first user to rent a particular product item,according to the personal information of the first user. The method mayalso comprise sending information identifying a certain number of theproduct items that match the particular product item to thecommunication device of the first user for display, if it is determinedthat at least one product item in the collection matches the particularproduct item.

Additional aspects of the present disclosure may be found in an onlinesystem supporting crowdsourced peer to peer rental of products itemsamong a plurality of users. Such a system may comprise at least oneprocessor communicatively coupled to a display device, where the atleast one processor, during operation, may perform at least the steps ofthe method described above.

Further aspects of the present disclosure may be seen in anon-transitory computer-readable medium having a plurality of codesections, where each code section comprises a plurality of instructionsexecutable by one or more processors to perform actions supportingcrowdsourced peer to peer rental of products items among a plurality ofusers. The actions of the one or more processors may comprise the stepsof the method described above.

Although devices, methods, and systems according to the presentinvention may have been described in connection with a preferredembodiment, it is not intended to be limited to the specific form setforth herein, but on the contrary, it is intended to cover suchalternative, modifications, and equivalents, as can be reasonablyincluded within the scope of the invention as defined by this disclosureand appended diagrams.

Accordingly, the present invention may be realized in hardware,software, or a combination of hardware and software. The presentinvention may be realized in a centralized fashion in at least onecomputer system, or in a distributed fashion where different elementsare spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind ofcomputer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methodsdescribed herein is suited. A typical combination of hardware andsoftware may be a general-purpose computer system with a computerprogram that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computersystem such that it carries out the methods described herein.

The present invention may also be embedded in a computer programproduct, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation ofthe methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer systemis able to carry out these methods. Computer program in the presentcontext means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of aset of instructions intended to cause a system having an informationprocessing capability to perform a particular function either directlyor after either or both of the following: a) conversion to anotherlanguage, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different materialform.

While the present invention has been described with reference to certainembodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention. In addition, manymodifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material tothe teachings of the present invention without departing from its scope.Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited tothe particular embodiment disclosed, but that the present invention willinclude all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of operating an online system supportingcrowdsourced peer to peer rental of products items among a plurality ofusers, the method comprising: forming a collection of informationidentifying a plurality of product items submitted for rental by arespective user of the plurality of users, the collection of informationcomprising personal information identifying a geographic location of thesubmitting user; receiving, from a communication device of a first userof the plurality of users, a request to rent a particular product itemand a geographical location of the first user; searching the collectionof information to identify product items matching the particular productitem and for which the geographic location of the submitting user iswithin a distance threshold of the geographic location of the firstuser; determining a number of product items in the collection that matchthe particular product item; accepting, from the communication device ofthe first user, a request to communicate with potential lenders of theparticular product item; selecting one or more users of the plurality ofusers as potential lenders of the particular product item, according toone or both of a likelihood that the one or more users have theparticular product item and a likelihood of the one or more usersaccepting a request to rent the particular product item; sending amessage to each of the potential lenders of the particular product item,the message comprising a notification of the request by the first userto rent the particular product item; and receiving an acceptance of therequest to rent the particular product item from a respective potentiallender of the particular product item.
 2. The method according to claim1, wherein the likelihood that the one or more users have the particularproduct item is determined from purchase history information of the oneor more users.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein thelikelihood of the one or more users accepting a request to lend theparticular product item is determined from a number of responses of theone or more users to notifications of requests to lend related productitems.
 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the likelihood thatthe one or more users have the particular product item is determinedfrom purchase history information of the one or more users showingpurchase of a product item related to use of the particular productitem.
 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the distance thresholdis adjusted based on the number of product items in the collection thatmatch the particular product item.
 6. The method according to claim 1,further comprising sending to the first user a recommendation of aproduct item to rent, based upon a relationship of an intended used ofthe recommended product item to rent to product items in a purchasehistory of the first user.
 7. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising computing a score indicating a propensity of the first userto rent a particular product item, according to the personal informationof the first user.
 8. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising sending information identifying a certain number of theproduct items that match the particular product item to thecommunication device of the first user for display, if it is determinedthat at least one product item in the collection matches the particularproduct item.
 9. An online system supporting crowdsourced peer to peerrental of products items among a plurality of users, the systemcomprising: at least one processor communicatively coupled to a displaydevice, the at least one processor being operable to, at least: form acollection of information identifying a plurality of product itemssubmitted for rental by a respective user of the plurality of users, thecollection of information comprising personal information identifying ageographic location of the submitting user; receive, from acommunication device of a first user of the plurality of users, arequest to rent a particular product item and a geographical location ofthe first user; search the collection of information to identify productitems matching the particular product item and for which the geographiclocation of the submitting user is within a distance threshold of thegeographic location of the first user; determine a number of productitems in the collection that match the particular product item; accept,from the communication device of the first user, a request tocommunicate with potential lenders of the particular product item;select one or more users of the plurality of users as potential lendersof the particular product item, according to one or both of a likelihoodthat the one or more users have the particular product item and alikelihood of the one or more users accepting a request to rent theparticular product item; send a message to each of the potential lendersof the particular product item, the message comprising a notification ofthe request by the first user to rent the particular product item; andreceive an acceptance of the request to rent the particular product itemfrom a respective potential lender of the particular product item. 10.The system according to claim 9, wherein the likelihood that the one ormore users have the particular product item is determined from purchasehistory information of the one or more users.
 11. The system accordingto claim 9, wherein the likelihood of the one or more users accepting arequest to lend the particular product item is determined from a numberof responses of the one or more users to notifications of requests tolend related product items.
 12. The system according to claim 9, whereinthe likelihood that the one or more users have the particular productitem is determined from purchase history information of the one or moreusers showing purchase of a product item related to use of theparticular product item.
 13. The system according to claim 9, whereinthe distance threshold is adjusted based on the number of product itemsin the collection that match the particular product item.
 14. The systemaccording to claim 9, further comprising sending to the first user arecommendation of a product item to rent, based upon a relationship ofan intended used of the recommended product item to rent to productitems in a purchase history of the first user.
 15. The system accordingto claim 9, further comprising computing a score indicating a propensityof the first user to rent a particular product item, according to thepersonal information of the first user.
 16. The system according toclaim 9, further comprising sending information identifying a certainnumber of the product items that match the particular product item tothe communication device of the first user for display, if it isdetermined that at least one product item in the collection matches theparticular product item.
 17. A non-transitory computer-readable mediumhaving a plurality of code sections, each code section comprising aplurality of instructions executable by one or more processors toperform actions supporting crowdsourced peer to peer rental of productsitems among a plurality of users, wherein the actions of the one or moreprocessors comprise: forming a collection of information identifying aplurality of product items submitted for rental by a respective user ofthe plurality of users, the collection of information comprisingpersonal information identifying a geographic location of the submittinguser; receiving, from a communication device of a first user of theplurality of users, a request to rent a particular product item and ageographical location of the first user; searching the collection ofinformation to identify product items matching the particular productitem and for which the geographic location of the submitting user iswithin a distance threshold of the geographic location of the firstuser; determining a number of product items in the collection that matchthe particular product item; accepting, from the communication device ofthe first user, a request to communicate with potential lenders of theparticular product item; selecting one or more users of the plurality ofusers as potential lenders of the particular product item, according toone or both of a likelihood that the one or more users have theparticular product item and a likelihood of the one or more usersaccepting a request to rent the particular product item; sending amessage to each of the potential lenders of the particular product item,the message comprising a notification of the request by the first userto rent the particular product item; and receiving an acceptance of therequest to rent the particular product item from a respective potentiallender of the particular product item.
 18. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium according to claim 17, wherein the likelihoodthat the one or more users have the particular product item isdetermined from purchase history information of the one or more users.19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 17,wherein the likelihood of the one or more users accepting a request tolend the particular product item is determined from a number ofresponses of the one or more users to notifications of requests to lendrelated product items.
 20. The non-transitory computer-readable mediumaccording to claim 17, wherein the likelihood that the one or more usershave the particular product item is determined from purchase historyinformation of the one or more users showing purchase of a product itemrelated to use of the particular product item.
 21. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium according to claim 17, wherein the distancethreshold is adjusted based on the number of product items in thecollection that match the particular product item.
 22. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 17, whereinthe actions of the one or more processors further comprise sending tothe first user a recommendation of a product item to rent, based upon arelationship of an intended used of the recommended product item to rentto product items in a purchase history of the first user.
 23. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 17, whereinthe actions of the one or more processors further comprise computing ascore indicating a propensity of the first user to rent a particularproduct item, according to the personal information of the first user.24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 17,wherein the actions of the one or more processors further comprisesending information identifying a certain number of the product itemsthat match the particular product item to the communication device ofthe first user for display, if it is determined that at least oneproduct item in the collection matches the particular product item.